Inari's Bane
by Mirazhe1
Summary: Kyuubi just liked being ironic like that.


Oh me gee :) This was a one day project, to get away from Fortune's Fool for a bit. I was sick recently (still getting over it) and was doped up a bit on something that started with a K (or something like that... little to woozy to remember lol). Anyway, the stuff helps your cough but gives you weird dreams and a killer head ache. I had a cool dream of Kyuubi being trapped in a stone cage in the shape of a snake head and wanted to write/draw about it. Really fun stuff.

Ah and for many of you who haven't researched foxes to any extent, Tenko is a celestial fox with nine tails, thats either very evil or a messanger of Inari. It may be familiar to a few readers (this explains were I got Kyuubi's false name in Fortunes Fool, wink).

Disclaimer: I own nothing, and without further a do...

_**Inari's Bane**_

**By Mirazhe1**

* * *

Foxes, of any kind, do not enjoy cages, and this one was no exception. 

It was not the most common of jails, high above that dreadful waterfall, muddy and impure waters splashing downward. For this cage, this fox's jail, was in the shape of a giant snake head. Made from the hardest of stones, this dreaded snake-head of a prison was, of coarse, attached to a long body that rose from the depths of this impure waterfall. Even being made of stone, long claw marks adorned it's surface, varying in depth and length.

This snake, looking all to alike to the near immortal Manda, was frozen in time as it hissed out to all who looked at it, it's many long fangs connecting to make the bars of this cage. A few of these long fangs had, however, been eroded or knocked away, giving the hissing snake a missing toothed grin.

And behind these fangs-made-barrier, squirmed and roared the truly immortal Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Now, any half educated fool might wonder: How, oh how, did this stone snake-head of a cage keep the mighty Kyuubi no Kitusne behind its teeth made bars? The Kyuubi no Kitsune, so strong and utterly powerful, inside this morbid statue, which the fox could surely crush with a single tail?

The answer, small and simple, could be found between the snake's menacing eyes. A small slip of paper, a seal, yellowed and old with time, diligently stuck to the stone, likely to stay there to the end of time. The greedy slip of paper steadily sucked away at Kyuubi's power; No matter how much youki the fox charged up for a technique or for strength, it was sucked away into the endless storages of the seal.

And this was why the Kyuubi no Kitsune had thrashed and struggled for these past thousands of years to escape his prison, forever cursing the damned snake who sealed him there..

Even if the snake was already dead many lifetimes over.

Spitting furiously, the mighty fox once again slipped his long arm between the snakes teeth to reach upward in a futile attempt to snatch away the seal. He clawed desperately at the snake's stone nose, leaving long trenches, but was still a many good feet from reaching. The fox had a mission, a now thousand year old mission, appointed to him. Appointed to him by Inari, as he was indeed the god's messenger. With a frustrated roar, as being suck here meant he couldn't fulfill his mission, many of the fox's nine tails slipped through the 'bars' and slammed at his prison desperately.

After a long while, Kyuubi began to calm for the most part, contemplating his thousand year problem. With a growl, he stood at largest gap between the teeth and rammed his head through, soon followed by his shoulders. Squirming his long, lithe body for a very long time, his hips finally breached the gap, and Kyuubi plunged down with the murky waterfall below with a triumphant roar. How ironic that the seal wouldn't let him destroy the cage to escape, while he merely slipped through the bars.

He couldn't be happier.

Finally able to use his youki, Kyuubi's nine tails melded into one efficient one as his torso and body lengthened; the fox dove into the water below hardly with a splash. Swimming under the rapids like a long, furred eel, Kyuubi made his way to freedom.

---

The Kyuubi no Kitsune was EXTREMELY annoyed. With the shining, sunlit exit in sight (contrary to the red, murky, and morbid surroundings), his captor's minions had ambushed the fox. Even in his exhausted state, the inferior underlings wouldn't have been a challenge...

... Had they not been reinforced by thousands of snake summons and new sealing techniques developed during his imprisonment. Kyuubi knows of all sealing techniques, he's a demon; thus, learning he did not, in fact know all, made the fox EXTREMELY annoyed.

And thus, that resulted in were Kyuubi sat in the dirt now, transformed to a more versatile form once again (considering his massive size would have filled the room), covered with little seals plastered all over him, and sulking before the rather smug looking Orochimaru as he sat on his throne. With a low growl coming from his near human throat (for he had indeed transformed into a human), Kyuubi hardly needed to look about, he remembered the throne room so well. On either side of the stone throne trickled down the two purest streams of water in this horrid place Kyuubi had come to know in his thousand year stay. They waterfalled from two spouts (made of stone in the shape of , of coarse, two snakes hissing) and came trickling past on either side of the throne.

Over and around the two fountains twisted stone snakes menacingly hissing or glaring at all who approached. The rest of the room, though large, was bare, while the high walls were littered with caverns. Caverns filled with the Snake-nin's minions, shinobi, demonic, or... Otherwise.. Kyuubi was sure he had spotted a rather naked woman that was missing her legs since they were replaced by a snake's tail... To him.. That was in no way attractive...

Kyuubi frowned and combed a hand through his large tuft of blonde hair as he looked back to his captor looking all to smug once again. For a snake to imprison a fox- surely an atrocity. The fox would surely never hear the end of it.

**"Speak, Heavens-bane,"** Kyuubi growled out from his human throat. Orochimaru, if anything, looked more smug at this.

"I have no reason to speak, tenko," the fox snarled loudly at this. How dare this snake mock his holy mission given to him by Inari himself! "I merely contemplate what I am to do with you now that you've escaped my prison." The snake-nin's smirk widened, stretching the boundaries of his face menacingly. "My ancestors must have been strong indeed, to so successfully bind one of Inari's messengers for so long. Too bad I don't know a way to make you serve me. Foxes are such troublesome and useless things."

**"THEN RELEASE ME, HEAVENS-BANE! GIVE ME MY FREEDOM!" **Kyuubi roared. His voice echoed menacingly through the great hall, making the entire room shudder. Pebbles plummeted from the ceiling and the snake-nin's minions cowered. Orochimaru sat unfazed. This was his domain, he had rightfully inherited it from his ancestors, and no messenger of Inari was going to faze him.

"So you wish to be free," Orochimaru asked calmly.

**"Yes,"** Kyuubi snarled out, his hands clenching the dirt below them. The fox's piercing red eyes glared up through blonde tufts of hair at Orochimaru as he calmly looked down at the fox temporarily transformed human.

"Then you only have to do one thing," Orochimaru's smirk widened even more, "Drink from this spring, and you can go." The snake-nin gestured to one of the clear, sparkling springs trickling next to his throne. Without a word, Kyuubi leapt to his temporarily human feet and propped himself on the back of a stone snake beside the fountain, gazing in. The spring looked innocent enough as it babbled healthily to him. Kyuubi scratched a cheek in thought, his sharp claw catching on the three faux whiskers adorning his face. He liked being ironic like that, explaining why the near millennia old fox was in the form of a 12 or 13 year old.

Finally coming to a decision, Kyuubi dipped his hands into the spring, cupped them in an inexperienced way, and brought them to his lips. Immediately the world began to spin, and only with a **"Heavens-bane" **uttered, Kyuubi sunk into blackness...

---

Kyuubi 'awoke' with a flash of light. How ironic, he managed to think as the light blinded him with this odd feeling of deja vu. Looking about curiously, he was surprised to see the ominous form the Shinigami floating above a giant red frog... The giant fox blinked at this; he had not met the newly appointed frog boss (new by his years, the frog had been boss for nearly a decade). And he had not heard the Frog boss had an extremely small mop of blonde hair.

No not a mop of blonde hair, a human standing atop the frog's head defiantly as the Shinigami hung ominously above him. Kyuubi's sharp eyes caught the man holding a human cub, no doubt his own, considering it also had a large mop of blonde hair. The fox nearly laughed, if not the rather confusing situation, as the human cub looked like an exact younger copy of him shortly ago as he kneeled in Orochimaru's lair. How ironic.

About at this time, Kyuubi finally realized why the Shinigami was hanging about so ominously: The Shiki Fujin. Immediately sobering from his dizzy watchings, Kyuubi quickly began to produce large amounts of youki. The fox prided himself in knowing of (almost) all sealing techniques. He had to: he was a demon and he was a millennia old.

Kyuubi did NOT want to be sealed, because foxes, of any kind, do not enjoy cages, and this one was no exception.

At last the older blonde human performed the jutsu just as the fox expelled all of his gathered youki. The Shinigami's hand extended through the man's abdomen, meaning to take the fox's soul, but grabbed the large amount of youki instead. It moved back, and thrust its hand into the small child. It wailed helplessly for a moment as the Shinigami disappeared and the man fell back dead, before it also went silent as death.

Kyuubi looked on sadly, looking about at the half destroyed village he now stood upon. The snake had tricked him from his mission all to well.

Protect, protect them from the snake, Inari had said, all those centuries ago, to Kyuubi as he set out on his mission. Not only had the fox been captured, he had failed his mission.

But looking on with his keen crimson eyes, Kyuubi watched the village's ninja scramble about desperately, calling orders and grouping together. He watched the healers come to help the wounded, and pay respects to the fallen, the people he had felled.

Maybe, maybe he had failed his mission, Kyuubi thought sadly. But maybe as he watched these humans, these ninja, he pondered an idea. Maybe, he could successfully fulfill his mission anyway.

Looking back to the rather dead man and child atop the nervous looking frog, Kyuubi, though exhausted, gathered his youki once again. Preforming an, even by his years, extremely old technique, he felt a horrid swirling, draining sensation. And how odd it was to open his eyes and see none other than his own giant fox body float away like dust in the wind.

---

Sandaime no Hokage solemnly accepted the small child tenderly handed to him by the large webbed hand of Gamabunta. The child, squinting his eyes and little faux whisker cheeks up, waled and cried healthily. Sandaime cooed and rocked the poor thing carefully until it slowly began to calm.

As Sandaime looked up to Gamabunta long enough for the frog to nod sadly and dispel himself, the newly appointed Hokage failed to notice the child's image seem to flicker. Like an illusion placed around it had become unsteady, he changed from the normal looking baby to one with crimson eyes and a long fox tail, while the child kept his wild blonde hair and faux whiskers. Then, the image transformed back into a normal one quickly at a determined look in the baby's eyes. Looking back, he also failed to notice that the wide blue eyes were slitted at the pupil and held a more wise and knowing look to them than any newborn child should have. With a sigh, Sandaime made his way back to what was left of the village, to announce the sealing of Kyuubi.

Everyone in the village, for many years to come, would fail to know of their new guardian appointed to them by the god Inari himself. They would fail to realize that this guardian, Inari's messenger and thus a fox, would do anything for the village, including transfer his own soul to that of a human body and live amongst them. Nor would they realize that this guardian would fight to become their leader, while they scorned and hated him. That, even as they mocked his whiskered cheeks and his smile with the likeliness to the fox they called him, he was indeed the being they all thought he was in mind and soul. They failed to know that the 'demon vessel', as they had come to know him, was in actuality the demon supposed to be sealed, hiding under an illusion, but mercifully protecting them all.

But that's OK.

Because the Kyuubi no Kitsune just liked being ironic like that.

* * *

THE END 

Oh did I mention this was a One-Shot? Im pretty sure a few of you guys won't be happy about that, sorry. Lol. And no Im not being a evil authoress; I really am sorry. I already have ideas for stories after Fortune's Fool, and this isn't one of them. Sorry.

Errr... I think thats the end, other than: Sorry for errors! I tried to be carefull, but a Beta I am not. I didn't want to further weigh down Keeper with this story, as I tend to hand out chapters and such like crazy, so the poor thing is probably weighed down with a few chapters right now. -Waves at Keeper- SORRY!

'azhe out.


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